The West Virginia Department of Health and Human Resources reported 13 new cases of COVID-19 in Upshur County on Saturday, the highest single-day increase since the pandemic began.
Forty-eight COVID-19 cases are currently active in Upshur County, according to the DHHR. For perspective, that’s more than the 43 total cases Upshur County reported during the sixth-month period from March through the end of August.
The new cases pushed Upshur County deeper into the orange category on the daily alert map. Parents, students and educators must now await the release of the official school map from the West Virginia Department of Education. That map, which uses the same metrics but is separate from the DHHR map, is released weekly at 5 p.m. Saturday and dictates whether schools and sports can continue for the next week.
According to state officials, the cutoff for data to be included in the school map is Thursday at midnight, meaning the new cases announced Saturday won’t be counted until the October 10 school map.
The DHHR also updated the dashboard Saturday to explain how counties like Barbour – which is off-the-charts red with the highest rate of new cases in the state – still manage to qualify as green on the map, allowing school and sports to continue without any extra precautions.
(Please note that the superintendent in Barbour County overrode the state guidelines and ordered schools closed for the past week.)
The answer is that more than half Barbour County’s cases are listed as probable and therefore not counted. This latest ‘tweak’ was not publicly announced when the state began using the positivity rate for the alert map and will likely lead to additional criticism of metric by health and school officials.
Twelve of Upshur County’s weekly cases are listed as probable by the DHHR and therefore not counted in the map positivivity rate calculation.
Statewide, 161 new cases of COVID-19 were identified in the Mountain State on Saturday.
Two additional deaths have been attributed to the disease, according to the DHHR – an 86-year old female from Fayette County and an 82-year old female from Kanawha County.
“The West Virginia Department of Health and Human Resources reports as of 10 a.m., October 3, 2020, there have been 582,207 total confirmatory laboratory results received for COVID-19, with 16,468 total cases and 357 deaths,” according to a press release.
New cases were reported Saturday in Barbour, Berkeley, Boone, Cabell, Gilmer, Greenbrier, Hampshire, Hancock, Hardy, Harrison, Jackson, Jefferson, Kanawha, Lincoln, Logan, Marion, Marshall, Mason, McDowell, Mercer, Mineral, Mingo, Monongalia, Morgan, Nicholas, Ohio, Putnam, Raleigh, Randolph, Roane, Tyler, Upshur, Wayne, Wetzel, Wood and Wyoming counties.
About 4,173 West Virginia cases remain active, according DHHR data. Of the cases that are no longer active, 11,938 people have recovered and 357 have died. The daily percent positive was 2.42%.
CASES PER COUNTY: Barbour (94), Berkeley (1085), Boone (250), Braxton (13), Brooke (117), Cabell (885), Calhoun (27), Clay (37), Doddridge (32), Fayette (648), Gilmer (49), Grant (162), Greenbrier (132), Hampshire (110), Hancock (154), Hardy (94), Harrison (437), Jackson (288), Jefferson (445), Kanawha (2842), Lewis (40), Lincoln (186), Logan (635), Marion (298), Marshall (184), Mason (147), McDowell (94), Mercer (436), Mineral (176), Mingo (398), Monongalia (2079), Monroe (151), Morgan (61), Nicholas (122), Ohio (380), Pendleton (53), Pleasants (18), Pocahontas (60), Preston (161), Putnam (620), Raleigh (550), Randolph (268), Ritchie (13), Roane (56), Summers (59), Taylor (141), Tucker (39), Tyler (17), Upshur (110), Wayne (419), Webster (8), Wetzel (65), Wirt (12), Wood (382), Wyoming (129).
